Last of five days of very telling jokes about consultants and how to avoid them being told at your expense.

If you are a weekly subscriber, see the past week's jokes (and takeaways) IMC's Consulting Humor blog..Spending too much time at a single client site risks what we call "going native," a condition in which the consultant becomes indistinguishable from the members of the client staff.

You are not displaced from your temporary office but new employees are sharing cubicles

You know personal life details of the client's night cleaning staff and security guards

You discuss what needs to be repaired with the copier repair person (whom you also know on a first name basis)

You are on the faculty for the new employee orientation program

You use so many acronyms you no longer know whether they are yours or the client's

You are asked to serve on the company picnic planning committee

You are asked by the client to join the staff

You begin to use the terms "us" and "we" when referring to the client organization

Takeaway: A hallmark of the professional management consultant is his or her independence and objectivity, which are also principle tenets of our profession's ethical practices. Although it is theoretically possible to be objective long after you have become "friendly" with your client, this is dangerous territory. This is also the danger of using former employees as "consultants," because it is all but impossible for them to be objective.